Put a support in the bucket (like one of those pre-made, fan-shaped, wooden garden trellises, for instance), and plant vining green beans and/or cucumbers.

How about Swiss Chard? I always grow some in a container. Other greens? Lettuce? You could plant kale later in the season.

Green beans and lettuces sound like great ideas!! Thanks! (I was brain dead..lol)

I was also thinking....Last year I did some pruning of my corkscrew willow tree and put the cuttings in a bucket of water to make willow tea. They've been there ever since and are pretty heavily rooted and they've even leafed out. Would it be an okay idea to pot them up in the 5 gallon buckets to get larger or would I be wasting my time and better off just planting them in the ground?

Jiggreen, I don't hang out here much, so please forgive what I'm sure is a very basic question, but how do you handle drainage in a 5-gal. bucket? I assume you somehow (?) create holes in the bottom and in addition put a layer (?) of something (?) in the bucket before you add soil. I appreciate the help--thanks!

Jiggreen,
The 5 gal bucket is an ideal place to grow greens. May I suggest that you retain the lids, cut the buckets in half, drill the bottom and the top and you will two containers for the price of one. Lettuce does not require a deep container. I grow mine in about 6 or 7 inches of soil-less mix and it works great. If you were closer, I would come over and releave you of come of yours. After dark of course. LOL

Alisande, I had my husband drill holes around the bottom of the containers so that the water would drain out ...not underneath the containers, instead he did it about an inch or so up from the bottom on the sides (that way I don't have to have the buckets on a raised platform type thing, I can set them directly on my patio and they will still drain), I think he did 6 or 7 holes per bucket. As for filler, I use packing peanuts..I save them up all year long and they work well in the bottom of the buckets to fill up space (that Miracle Gro potting soil gets pricey!) and to help with the drainage. I used to use gravel but found that the packing peanuts were effective without adding all that extra weight!

Ole Dawg....you wouldn't have to sneak over under cover of darkness..I'd gladly give you some buckets! (I brought home 8 more of them tonight!) Cutting them in half sounds like a great idea for plants that don't need a deep container! ( it sounds like a job for hubby to do...I'd probably lose a finger or two!)

: )

Jigg,
Ah! Not often I get to answer a question with any kind of authority, but, since I moved into Philly with concrete as a backyard, and too cheap to spend big bucks on containers, I KNOW 5-gallon (and 6-gallons, if you ever get into wine making kits, and 3-gallons, if you have a cat and get your litter in a plastic container) containers!

Yes, tomatoes are a first thought, and grow well in them, but, if you haen't done it yet, drill several holes in the bottom and the low sides of them, because tomatoes are water hogs, and the pots will mildew on the inside. Doesn't affect the tomatoes, except maybe that is the cause for our tomatoes to have all been an inch or two smaller then expected. (Then again, we're also both disabled, so we also can't get to sucker plucking as often as we should, which also might be the cause.)

Also, another secret to remember in the future, if you've filled the bottom of the buckets with filler -- plastic bottles, cans, or styrafoam peanuts (I hope not, their a drag to deal with, when you change soil) -- before planting the tomatoes, don't. Tomatoes have deep tap roots, so they can enjoy the entire depth of the buckets. Not a problem though, since this is my first year not using those buckets for my tomatoes, and we always had plenty of tomatoes for the two of us well into the winter. One piece of advice about tomatoes though -- don't use the same soil or even the same pot for next year's tomatoes, unless you wash the pot well. (No using the same soil though, ever.) Chances are good, you'll end up with Blossom End Rot the second year.

Any annual produce, herb, flower, or intersting textured plant can grow in them, assuming they can grow in our area.

By now, you have to plant, instead of sow seeds, unless you go for easy to germinate seeds, like hyacinth beans or moonflowers (you'll need something big for them to grow on, like a chainlink fence, trellis or anything big for it to wind its way up.) My clematis has been growing in the same bucket with the same soil for 4 years. I'm hoping a couple of summer squash will grow in one (also needs something to grow on, since it's a vine, too), and cukes grew out of two last year. If you have way too many and plenty of room to put a whole bunch together, you can even grow corn (any variety, including popcorn), although that's a heck of a lot of cost in potting soil, and corn tends to absorb every single nutrition out of the soil, so you can't use that same soil for next year.

Basically, you can grow anything in them that won't out grow them, or won't grow past three times the height of them, IF you're planting perennials. The only thing you need to remember is, since they are containers, they have to be able to survive zone 5 winters.

Oh, and if you're still needing more ideas, after the gardening with them, if you have a slew of them, take a truck load to a Philly flea market, and you can sell them for $.50-$1.00 each. Enough of us need them that we're actually willing to buy them off of Dunkin Donuts and delis! LOL

Thanks, Jig! That's very helpful. I'm psyched to give it a try. Now all I have to do is become friendly with someone who works in a restaurant. :-)

If you are a fan of eggplant you should try growing those in the 5 gallon buckets, I am currently growing some and they are looking great so far.